Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Conspiracy Factory is about to become $50,000 richer! That's right, it's a no-lose, money-making proposition that I've come upon, and I daresay that I'm a little reluctant to share it with you, dear readers, for fear that you'll beat me to the punch...

Alive & Well will present a cash award of $25,000 to the first person to locate a study that provides us with the missing scientific proof that HIV tests are accurate. To celebrate this important finding, Alive and Well will donate an additional $25,000 to Heifer International, a unique charity working to end hunger in the developing world by using a holistic approach to building sustainable communities.

The missing evidence we’re looking for is a study published in a peer reviewed medical journal that shows the validation of any HIV test by the direct isolation of HIV from the fresh, uncultured fluids or tissues of positive testing persons.

Since no HIV test directly detects HIV itself, and since the tests currently used to diagnose HIV infection rely on surrogate markers such as antibodies or genetic material, a study should exist somewhere in the published medical literature which shows that at least one type of surrogate test for HIV has been validated for accuracy by the direct isolation of HIV itself from people who test antibody, RNA or DNA positive.

Okay, I'll confess, I don't know what the heck "Since no HIV test directly detects HIV itself" means, so I've written this letter to ask for clarification. Here is the e-mail that I sent to Aliveandwell.org today:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a humble pseudonymous blogger. I am deeply interested in collecting your $50,000 reward. However, I confess that I don't entirely understand the rules of your contest. Given that it's been a few months since you offered this challenge, and presumably no one has collected, I am a bit concerned about what the "catch" is, so to speak.

What are the exact rules in this contest? Who will judge whether or not I have proven your demand? Obviously this is the most important question, as an interested observer could prevent me from collecting the $50,000, even if I present reasonable proof.

I look forward to hearing from you, and look forward even more to collecting my half of the $50,000 (and to distributing the other half to the charity Heifer International).

I'm not an HIV researcher (though I am a microbiologist). In about 5 minutes on PubMed, I was able to find papers all the way back to 1988 that (to me) satisfy their written requirements as posted on their website.

I think what the contest demands is that you isolate the HIVirus itself, stick it in a petri dish, and watch it thrive. HIV is detected in people via identifying antibodies. The virus itself is seldom present in tests or experiments; these are done on genetic strings characteristic of the virus. It would be very difficult to meet the conditions of this contest. The real question is, do these conditions show a misunderstanding of microbiology? The AIDS deniers pretend that Koch (or somebody) created a "law" that states certain conditions under which an organism may be said to cause a disease. Of course, vaccination was used to counter smallpox long before the Variola virus was ever discovered and public health measures designed to prevent infection by viruses have had an impact on AIDS but these facts mean nothing to Consipracy Believers.

You're right that HIV is usually clinically tested for by antibodies, and sometimes tested for by PCR. But there are VOLUMES of papers where they tested subjects by PCR or by antibodies, and then isolated the virus. It is a myth that HIV has only been isolated once. That's why I'm looking for the fine print.

I did some searching and found that, if fact, the HIVirus has been isolated and cultured and Koch's Postulates are answered: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/evidhiv.htm So my view of denialism is dated, I suppose. I recall Duesberg back in the 80s saying the question rested on what happened to the people who got transfusions of HIV tainted blood. Of course they all got AIDS. That should have shut Duesberg up but he then moved on to blame the blood products.

I;m not sure what kind of proof is acceptable, b.ut we certainly test for antibodies (Elisa, Western Blot) and for virus (RNA). I think they have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a virus is...RNA, proteins stuck together...they are all detected quite easily, and you can pull up a picture of HIV on a cell in 5 secs on the web.

But you've done one of the few things that I delete comments for: copy-paste spam. You're welcome to refer us to other blogs or webpages, but please limit your comments to your own words, or to short, attributed quotes.

A Note About Google Ads

Google Ads seems to place the most obnoxious ads at the top of my blog. When I write a few posts about how acupuncture has been demonstrated not to work, it places an advertisement for acupuncture. When I write about creationist frauds, it puts up ads for creationist books (or more recently, for creationist movies).

I don't endorse these products. In many cases, I think it likely that the marketers are not only mistaken, but frauds.

I thought about taking these ads down, but instead, I'm leaving them there. I'm considering them an anthropology experiment for me, and my readers. It's a fascinating world out there. Feel free to comment on the ads and the products they are selling in the relevant posts.

I enjoy the irony that people like Ben Stein and Gary Null will be paying me to take Mrs. Factician out for a nice dinner (at current click rates, about once every 18 months).

About Me

I'm fascinated with how people find conspiracies in every science situation that disagrees with their previously held prejudices. Be that global warming, evolution by natural selection, or the moon landing. I'll be posting on science, politics, and things that amuse me.